MEANING: Boy close to marriage
PERIOD: Late Triassic
CONTINENT: Africa
Musankwa is a basal sauropodomorph from the Late Triassic of what is now Zimbabwe. The early sauropodomorphs, or prosauropods, were likely omnivorous, as they represent an evolutionary transition between early theropods and the large herbivorous theropods. Like many other prosauropods, Musankwa was likely an obligate biped, walking only on two legs. It grew to about 4 m in length, and weighed upwards of 400 kg.
Abstract from paper: An articulated partial hind limb collected from the Pebbly Arkose Formation (Norian, Upper Triassic) of the Upper Karoo Group of Zimbabwe is described as a new taxon of sauropodomorph dinosaur. Musankwa sanyatiensis gen. et sp. nov. was discovered on the shoreline of Lake Kariba, on Spurwing Island in the Mid-Zambezi Basin. The holotype consists of a right femur, tibia, and astragalus, and can be distinguished from all other Late Triassic massopodan sauropodomorphs on the basis of numerous features, which form a unique character combination. Phylogenetic analysis recovers the new taxon as the earliest-branching lineage within Massopoda. Musankwa is only the fourth dinosaur to be named from the Karoo-aged basins of Zimbabwe and further demonstrates the high potential of this region for discoveries of new early dinosaur material.
Musankwa is from the Triassic. The Triassic is a geologic period which spans from the end of the Permian Period 251 million years ago to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201 million years ago. Both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events. The global climate during the Triassic was mostly hot and dry, with deserts spanning much of Pangea's interior. However, the climate shifted and became more humid as Pangea began to drift apart. Though it is the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the age of the dinosaurs, true dinosaurs didn't exist through most of it, finally evolving only in the Late Triassic.
Musankwa is a sauropodomorph. Sauropodomorpha is a group long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs that includes the sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large sizes, had long necks and tails, were quadrupedal, and became the largest animals to ever walk the Earth. The prosauropods, which preceded the sauropods, were smaller and often able to walk on two legs. The sauropodomorphs were the dominant terrestrial herbivores throughout much of the Mesozoic Era, from their origins in the Late Triassic until their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.
Sauropodomorphs had a light, tiny skull on the end of a long neck and a counterbalancing long tail. These adaptations gave them access to high tree foliage. The earliest known sauropodomorphs were small and slender, but by the end of the Triassic, they were the largest dinosaurs of their time, and throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous they continued growing. They were initially bipedal, but as their size increased they evolved a four-legged gait adapted only to walking slowly on land. The early sauropodomorphs were most likely omnivores as they were only recently diverged from the carnivorous theropods.